Separable hinge



06f. 24, 1961 1. FRIEND 3,005,228

SEPARABLE HINGE Filed June 13, 1960 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 /f /5 ,//0'y F/G.///4

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Oct. 24, 1961 l. FRIEND 3,005,228

SEPARABLE HINGE Filed June 13, 1960 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 BY W m Patented Oct. 24, 1961 ice 3,005,228 SEPARABLE HINGE Irvin Friend, Rockaway Park, N.Y., assignor to Hollywood Appliances Inc., lIackson Heights, N.Y., a corporation of New York t Filed June 13, 1960, Ser. No. 35,628 1 Claim. (Cl. 16-171) This invention relates to improvements for desk furniture which in one position is supported horizontally between legs at one end and an upstanding cabinet or storage unit at its other end, and in another position in order to conserve space is adapted to be suspended vertically from the upstanding storage unit with its supported legs folded against itself.

To achieve this utilitarian feature of being able to change from, horizontal to vertical position, the opposite ends of the desk have pivotal connections to the supporting legs and to the upstanding supporting storage unit respectively.

The improved desk of the present invention is similar- 1y constructed, but is in the nature of an improvement over existing desks in the manner in which the pivotal connections are provided, particularly insofar as they effect the appearance of the unit. In this regard, it is -a prime object of the present invention to provide -a pivotal connection Ibetween the desk and upstanding storage unit which allows the desk and folded supporting legs to hang from the storage unit in a substantially vertical manner rather than at an inclined angle, thereby greatly enhancing the appearance of the unit.

Apart from improving the appearance of the desk, it is also an important object of the present invention to teach structural improvements in both of the desk end pivotal connections. More specifically, as regards the pivotal connection for the desk supporting legs, it is an object to provide this connection in lan inexpensive and effective manner by utilizing an inturned end panel on the desk. As regards the pivotal connection to the upstanding storage unit, it is an object to provide an inexpensive, simple, and effective hinge for this connection.

Other objects and advantages of the desk of the present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the following description and drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a front view of the improved desk of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is atop view of the desk with its folded supporting legs suspended vertically from the storage unit;

FIG. 3 is a partial section view along line 3-3 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an end view projected from FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a partial section view along line 5--5 of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is an exploded view of the improved hinge of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a partial section view similar -to FIG. 3 but with the improved hinge of FIG. 6; and

FIG. 8 is a partial section view similar to FIG. 5 but with the improved hinge of FIG. 6.

In FIG. 1, the two positions of the desk 10 of the present invention are illustrated in phantom and solid line perspective. In the normal position of the desk, it is supported by legs 11 at one end, and at its other end by an upstanding cabinet or storage unit 12. To conserve space however, the desk 10 with the legs 11 folded against it is also adapted to be suspended from the upstanding storage unit 12, thus occupying only little more space than that occupied by the unit 12. This utilitarian fea` ture is accomplished by providing pivotal `connections 13 and 14 between the opposite ends of the desk 10 and the legs 11 and storage unit 12 respectively.

The desk 10 is preferably made of sheet metal, being formed with a rectangularly shaped panel 15 serving as its writing surface, and with end panels 16 and 17, and side panels 18, all bent inwardly of the panel 15. The end panels 16 and 17, as will be more fully explained subsequently, each serve a useful function in providing the pivotal connections 13 and 14; and the side panels 18 serve the useful .function of hiding the legs 11 when they are folded against the desk 10. Each of the lower edges of the side panels 18 are cut away at their ends, as at 19, to provide sufcient clearance for pivoting thedesk about the connection 14.

Referring to FIG. 4, it will be seen that the legs 11 are but parallel extensions of a single U-shaped tubular element. In accordance with the present invention, the pivotal connection 13 for the legs 11 is made by -a bracket 20 and utilizing the desk end panel 16. More specifically, the cross piece 21 of the legs 11 is centered at the end of the desk 10 and as best seen in FIG. 5 is pivotally confined between the end panel 16 and the bracket 20 which is spot welded at the several locations 22 to the underside 23 of the desk 10 and to the lower edge of the end panel 16.

At the other end of the desk 10, yand also in accordance with a main object of the present invention, the pivotal connection 14 is provided in such a manner that the ldesk 10 and folded legs 11 hang substantially vertically `from the storage unit 12. r[This is accomplished by Spacing the axis of this connection from both the under* side 23 of the desk 10 and from the vertical side 24 of the unit 12 which actually supports the desk and legs. Thus, as best shown in FIGS. 2, 3 and 5, an L-shaped bracket 25 has its one leg 26 connected to the end panel 17 and its other leg 27 extending inwardly therefrom and spaced from the underside 23 of the desk 10; a second bracket 28 is connected across the top of the unit 12 and has a leg 29 extending horizontally there-from and thus spaced from the vertical side 24; and to enable pivotal movement, a conventional hinge 30 may be used to connect the brackets 25 and 28 together, the connection therebetween being made so that the axis of this hinge is substantially coincident with the long edges 31 and 32 of the brackets 25 and 28.

Instead of the conventional hinge 30, a relatively inexpensive hinge such as shown in FIGS. 6, 7 and 8 and generally designated 40 therein, may be used to advantage in making the pivotal connection between the one end of the desk and the upstanding storage unit. Since except for replacement by the hinge 40 all other parts are identical, they are designated by the same but primed reference numerals.

As clearly shown in FIG. 6, hinge 40 is .formed of two plates 41 and 42. At its opposite ends the plate 41 has a base section 43 and a lip section 44, these two sections being connected by an inclined intermediate section 45 so that the lip section 44 extends substantially parallel to and in slightly elevated relation to the base section 43. A pair of spaced slots 46 are provided in the intermediate section 4S and a pair of similarly spaced projections 47 are provided on an edge 48 of the plate 42 for pivotally connecting the plates 41 and 42 together.

In this regard, in order to pivotally connect the plates together, the projections 47 are inserted through the slots 46 at an angle perpendicular to the intermediate section 45 as shown by the lines A. The reason for this particular angle is that the slots 46 must be entered at the angle presenting their full height B in order to accommodate laterally extending flanges, which as soon will be explained are provided on the projections 47, and which are purposefully made the same dimension B or slightly less, so they can be worked through the slots. After inserting the projections 47 through the slots 46, the plate Within th'e clearance existing between the slots 46 andA the body of the projections 47.

To prevent accidental Adisengagement of the plates, on each' projection there is' a ilange 49 at its end bent in one directionand on either side of its base a pair of flanges 5`0be`nt in the' opposite direction. The pair of anges 50' are thus adaptedto engage the base section 43v of the plate 41 to 4prevent Vaccidental disengagement in the one extreme position of the' plates shown in FIG. 7, Whereas the flange 49 is adapted to engage the lip section 44 of the plate 41' to prevent accidental disengagement in the other extreme position of the plates shown in FIG. 8.

It will be understood that the invention is not to be strictly limited to what has been shown Vand described herein but that various changes may be made thereto within the scope of the'appended claim.

What is claimed is:

In a hinge,'a rst plate member having substantially parallel extending base and lip sectionsy at its opposite ends and van intermediate inclined section connecting the two such that the lip section is slightly elevated above said base section, said intermediate section having spaced slots therein, and a second plate member having spaced projections thereon inregister with and adapted to be inserted through said spaced slots, each of Ysaid projections having a ange at its end bent in one direction and at least one flange at its base bent in the opposite direction -for engaging the lip and base sections respectively of said first plate member to prevent accidental disengagement of said plate members.

References Cited in the file ofv this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,015,518 Fuller Sept. 24,V 1935 2,750,243 Zielfeldt lune 12, 1956 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,093,668 France Nov. 24, 1954 550,048 Canada Dec. 10, 1957 

